Jeremy Johnson to get snaps with first-team offense

Jeremy Johnson will get snaps with the No. 1 offense when the Lamar University football team opens practice at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, coach Ray Woodard said.

Kelly graduate Doug Prewitt will be the No. 1 quarterback ahead of Andre Bevil and Johnson, but all three will share snaps with the starting unit.

“You can’t put a guy, a so-called No. 1, with the third unit all the time and expect him to perform to the level of the guy with the first line protecting him the whole time,” Woodard said Tuesday. “We’re going to have to give them all a fair shot.”

Johnson, a Silsbee graduate, transferred to Lamar after one redshirt season at West Virginia. He left high school as one of the nation’s top dual-threat quarterbacks.

Prewitt started the last three games last season after Bevil (West Orange-Stark) injured his hand and wrist during a game. Lamar won two games Prewitt started, and he entered the spring as the No. 1 quarterback.

Don’t look for the quarterbacks to rotate with the first-team offense until closer to the first preseason scrimmage Aug. 13.

“Early on, it will be getting reps to learn,” Woodard said. “But as we get into scrimmage situations, we’ll have to make sure we (give them equal first-team snaps).”

Woodard said no quarterback took command of the position in the spring. If anything, Johnson played his way up the depth chart.

“I thought we started spring ball the kind of the way we ended up with Doug one and Andre two,” Woodard said. “I think with Jeremy coming in here, we’ve kind of got a log-jam of quarterbacks. I don’t think any of them took off or was head and shoulders above the other two after spring ball, so we’re pretty much picking up where we left off. We kept the depth chart where it was after the spring.”